A classmate of Constance’s named Lindsay Begley wrote a rather lengthy explanation of why she and her classmates are a bunch of horrid bigots, and if following this story from the outset hasn’t brought back the wretchedness of the highschool hierarchy, Begley’s message certainly will. (And if you’re the type of person who would throw rocks at McMillen and call her names, you can join the Facebook group “Constance, quit yer cryin’.”)

Begley says:

**Open Minded Readers Only**

I am a senior at IAHS, and I’ve known Constance for the last 6 years. Please hear our side of the story before you decide on our fate.
The party we had in Evergreen (the county neighborhood I live in) is 30 mins away from the school. we rented out the community center, hired vendors, decorated, and our parents ran the security/chaperone staff- but it wasn’t prom. Prom was at the country club where constance and 7 other students were. The reason the senior class boycotted the actual prom was not because we hate gays. We wanted a drama-free gathering to celebrate 3 great years and 1 lousy one together, and we wanted to lay low. We also wanted to do it without the main cause of the lousy. What people are failing to realize is that much of the fault of this whole stink lies with Constance, not her mistreatment by the school district, but her crazy-reckless need for attention. It sounds mean and horrible and like we planned it all specifically to embarrass Constance, but we didn’t. We let her have her prom with her girlfriend and her tuxedo and we went to party it up in the “boondocks” not because we wanted her rights violated, but so we could salvage what has turned into a total fiasco. As a whole we didn’t support her decision to throw the district under the bus, or her insinuations that we’re all just a bunch ‘a hicks driving around in beater pick up trucks spitting tobacco and burning crosses. IAHS is one of the top schools in the state and I’m proud of that, and I’m proud that we took a stand and just said you know what? forget it, we have just as much right as you do to have a party for ourselves. So we did, and now we’re getting flack because poor Connie’s ego got a bit of bruising. She’s playing the lesbian card to prove she ALWAYS gets what she wants. This time, we didn’t just let her.

Take it as you will, because I’m sure it sounds like we faked her out, but understand this- the decision NOT to attend prom had nothing to do with the school or with Constance’s sexual preferences; it had everything to do with proving we weren’t going to let her and the ACLU steamroll us into doing what Constance wanted. We flexed the muscle of the majority and we’ll suffer the consequences.

Still don’t see why the en masse actions of McMillen’s classmates were so shameful, bigoted and horrible? The same thing happened to a black girl 45 years ago in Birmingham. Have you been buying the story that these kids and their parents just wanted a “drama free” prom? You can read some of their Facebook comments after the event here. Still okay with it? The blog Global Shift explains how this kind of institutionalized discrimination parallels the “separate but equal” racial struggles of the past:

Of course, this goes beyond helping the football team shove a science nerd in a locker; we’re discussing an active and willful plot to publicly separate and shame McMillen and (presumably) Itawamba’s other socially “undesirables” from fraternizing with the mainstream popular kids. The kind of emotional depravity that could justify for a mob mentality to ruin one girl’s high school prom rivals the Old Culture South’s reliance on separate but equal to avoid racial integration (which, apparently, few of the school district officials and none of the Itawamba parents knew had been overturned 56 years ago byPlessy v. Ferguson).

Below are some screencaps of students gloating after the event. Would that real life were like 1980s teen movies and these creeps were treated to some John Hughes style comeuppance.